Building a Rare Book Room for the Boss

Nearly 15,000 items of Bruce Springsteen history — from songbooks to school yearbooks and other memorabilia dating back to 1949 — will find a permanent home inside an institution of higher learning next month when Monmouth University opens its archive of all things Bruce.

The academic embrace of New Jersey’s favorite rock star is nothing new. “It is a little funny to think of Springsteen researchers, but that is the case now,” said Christopher Phillips, the head of the organization that has overseen the collection. Its new collegiate home will “basically [be] a rare book room for Springsteen,” he said.

The 10-year-old collection has been housed at the Asbury Park Public Library, but the facility only had room for about a third of the items; the rest stayed in storage. Friends of the Bruce Springsteen Special Collection, the nonprofit organization that amassed items from more than 44 countries, spent four years looking for a new home.

“Springsteen has always been about supporting his local community,” said Phillips, explaining why the West Long Branch campus was selected to host the collection. Monmouth has made the space available, but the volunteer Springsteen collectors are doing all the archival work.

Among the collection’s rare holdings are a large trove of Springsteen fanzines that researchers would struggle to find elsewhere. “These days somebody would start a website or a blog if they were a fan of Springsteen,” Phillips sad. “In the 70s and 80s, somebody might start a fanzine. They tend to be real labors of love.”

Bob Crane, executive director of the Springsteen group, said the collection has drawn journalists, authors and fans. Even before its move to Monmouth, the collection also attracted college students thanks to the growing number of colleges in the region offering courses on rock and roll history and seminars on Springsteen himself.

“We’ve had a lot of requests from students,” said Crane. “You can always tell when term papers are due.”